Hong Kong: Last Day

I decided to take a leisurely approach to my last day in Hong Kong, starting the day off with a back massage at Bua Hom Thai Massage in the Lan Kwai Fong district. The night before, I had attempted to seek it out since it was open until midnight, but had the wrong address, which seems to be posted online on some blogs. After a little more searching when I was back in my hotel room, I realized it was actually around the corner. For about $70 USD (20% tip included), the masseuse worked out a lot of the knots and kinks in my back. And hey, a big plus is that she spoke English, which means there was no need for my embarrassingly broken Cantonese.

The next stop was afternoon tea (or more like lunch for me, since I hadn’t had time to make the stop at Sang Kee for congee) at the Ritz Carlton’s Lounge & Bar. The price for afternoon tea isn’t as steep as what you might find at some of the other Ritz Carltons around the world; though one would still be apt to find it pricey for an afternoon snack at ~$35 USD. While the view was gorgeous from the 102nd floor, along with the live band, the pastries and desserts left much to be desired; most of the desserts were “all right” at best. The brownie and macaron, in particular, were the most dismal of the set what with the brownie being dry and the macaron’s texture completely wrong. That said, there were some highlights; of the set, the cheese cake and hazelnut cream were the highlights.

Following afternoon tea, I greeted sunset at the Nan Lian Garden, which is a public park built in the style the Tang dynasty. Adjacent to it is the Chi Lin Nunnery; however, when I made my way up the steps, I was disappointed to find that it had just closed. I wound up simply taking a lovely stroll in the garden before heading to the Happy Valley Racecourse for the Wednesday night races. Although I hadn’t placed any official bets, it was all the while fun to watch the enthusiastic folks write down their bets for the next race, as well as watch the short bursts of actual racing.

Perhaps one of the more shocking highlights was before the fifth or sixth race when I heard a gaggle of English speakers. It turns out that New York University had managed to follow me, even during vacation; the NYU Stern MBA DBi (“Doing Business in …”) program had an evening out at the racecourse and merely dropped by for one to two races to see the horses up close.

After I grew tired of watching the horse races, I stopped by for a quick dinner of noodles and wontons at Mak’s Noodle, which I’ve heard to be quite formidable. Before heading home to pack, I obtained a snack for the morning at the Singaporean jerky store, Bee Cheng Hiang.

The morning after was quite a relaxed one, especially since there wasn’t a lot to pack. I enjoyed a light breakfast at the MoMo Café downstairs before making my way to the airport. When taking the Airport Express from Central, one can check into their flight before making their way to the terminal and leave luggage to be checked-in at the counter to be transported on their own, which in turn, makes for a smooth and comfortable ride to the airport. The flight itself seemed to go by a lot faster this time around – perhaps it had to do with the TVs working this time around. In any case, I only had about two days of rest before heading back to New York to catch a flight to Brazil for my DRTC trip.